Animals

Nearly blind, Typhlomys cinereus thrives in the high forests of southeastern China and Vietnam—with a little help from another sense.

This Echolocating Dormouse Could Reveal the Origins of One of Nature’s Coolest Superpowers

Mice, moths and even humans use clicks and echoes to "see" the world around them

Ōkunoshima

The Dark History of Japan's Rabbit Island

The notorious RPB: the rusty patched bumble bee.

The Bee That Breaks Your Heart

Insects are hard-pressed to get protection as endangered species. Can one fuzzy anomaly beat the odds?

From the same DNA, different genders can boast dramatically different characteristics. Dung beetles are helping scientists understand how.

What Dung Beetles Can Teach Us About Sexual Difference

When it comes to sex appeal, it's not all in your genes (it's also in your proteins!)

How did the sabertooth cat wield its excess of tooth?

How Did Sabercats Use Those Outlandish Fangs?

We’ve barely scratched the surface of how this charismatic cat utilized its dental cutlery

Omsin ingested the coins during years in a public turtle pond.

The Sea Turtle That Ate 915 Coins Has Died

Her death comes two weeks after vets tried to save her life with a seven-hour surgery

The heroes of the movie Kong: Skull Island prepare to encounter the 104-foot-tall ape King Kong.

How Big Can a Land Animal Get?

King Kong's biggest enemy isn’t humans—it’s the laws of physics

Most regular visitors of Chicago's Field Museum are on a first-name basis with Sue, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that adorns the museum's front hall.

From “T. Rex” to “Pantydraco": How Dinosaurs Get Their Names

The best monikers are “a way to link science and imagination.” Others are just obvious

The male mountain gorilla Limbo (left) and Green Lady, a female from the same species, are on view in the exhibition, "Objects of Wonder," at the Natural History Museum.

Dian Fossey’s Gorilla Skulls Are Scientific Treasures and a Symbol of Her Fight

At a new Smithsonian exhibition, the skulls of “Limbo” and “Green Lady” have a story to tell

A spider munches on its prey.

Spiders Eat Up to 800 Million Tons of Prey Each Year

For comparison, whales eat up to 500 million tons annually

Researchers Find the First Naturally Fluorescent Frog Species

The polka-dot tree frog emits a blue-green glow under UV light, which is an unusual feature for land-dwelling critters

A wild female Amur leopard crouches on a rocky hillside in the Kedrovaya Pad nature reserve in Russia.

China Approves Massive National Park to Protect Its Last Big Cats

The 5,600-square-mile reserve along the Russian border will safeguard rare Amur leopards and Siberian Tigers

This image, taken from space last summer, shows a long swath of dead mangroves on Australia's northern coast.

What Killed Northern Australia’s Mangroves?

Last year’s massive die-off was the largest ever observed

A humpback supergroup off the coast of South Africa

Scientists Spot Hundreds of Humpback Whales Feeding in Massive Groups

The normally solitary creatures gathered off the southwestern coast of South Africa, puzzling researchers

Ecologists tend to think of mobbing behavior as primarily a way that smaller birds protect their nests and chicks from larger predators. Shown here, a Willie wagtail attacking an Australian raven.

Why Do Male Birds Take on Larger Predators? Maybe Just to Impress the Ladies

Some mobbing behavior may be less about survival, and more about sexual selection

What Lions Look for in the Perfect Prey

For lions hunting buffalo in the Manyeleti, calculation is always at play: An adult male buffalo may be harder to bring down

Itchy and scratchy: When they see their peers scratching away, mice get the urge to itch.

Why Is Itching So Contagious?

Scientists figure out how compulsive scratching spreads in mice, and maybe humans

While excavating at Bluefish Caves in northern Yukon during the 1970s and 1980s, Canadian archaeologist Cinq-Mars found cut-marked horse bones and other traces of human hunters that seemed to date to 24,000 years ago—thousands of years before the Clovis people.

What Happens When an Archaeologist Challenges Mainstream Scientific Thinking?

The story of Jacques Cinq-Mars and the Bluefish Caves shows how toxic atmosphere can poison scientific progress

What Killed More Than Half a Dozen of the Bahamas' Swimming Pigs?

Drought and sand-tainted snacks might be the reason for the recent deaths

Veterinarians stand with Omsin the green sea turtle, whose life they saved during an hours-long operation.

This Sea Turtle Ate 11 Pounds of Coins

Veterinarians removed the 900+ coins from Omsin the turtle's stomach after they noticed she was acting erratic

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